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Invasion of Maktur
The Invasion of Maktur was a campaign that took place in the year 712LN and involved the launching of a fleet of ships from the region of Telinor North Pole of Tolas, the continent of Maktur. The invasion was broken up into three parts, the Launch, the Landing and the March. Lead Up Eol'din's Return The story of the Invasion of Maktur begins with the freeing of Eol'din the Blackstaff from his imprisonment in the Tower during the events of the Tale of the Adorned Hand during their quest to uncover the mystery of the Four Rings. Following his return to the world, Eol'din took up the mantle of leader of the Blackstaves once again, and for a decade set about enacting a plan to invade the North Pole of the world for his own purposes, the other Blackstaves either too busy jostling for position in the College of Telinor or within their own organisation to question their leader's motives. Following the acquisition of various magical artefacts from his Shiro as well as the sword Kinslayer from the plane of Avernus by several Blackstaff agents, Eol'din was capable of waging war on anyone in the world, though instead he chose to direct his fleet and the large mercenary escort he hired to the desolate wastes of Maktur. The Conspiracy A group of interested parties joined together to address the threat that Eol'din's Fleet posed to the world, these included; Hidal, the Grandmaster of the Order of the Bladed Scholar, Thurirl Heutichi Madator, Ba'win the Necromany Nabob of Telinor and Lucius Hightower. Together these men conspired to prevent Eol'din from completing his plan which they suspected to be an attempt at freeing the Primordial of Fire known as Azo from the icy prison in which he lay, guarded by Seibold. They selected four agents to carry out a particular set of tasks, to kill, incapacitate or convince three targets; Muithadus Varun, an expert on the Nine Hells and keeper of a shackled Contract Devil, Skymore Hellslayer, the only one capable of wielding the blade Kinslayer unharmed that the Blackstaves' found in their ranks and the cultist of Tiamat Gulsauco, a powerful priestess. The four agents they selected were; Varharsh Seethe a follower of Lucius', Avenus a half-elf summoner bound to an abomination, Sulenark a childhood friend of Ba'win's and Lortz an orc from Farthrone that joined New Gate Free Company. The Launch The Thirsty Dragon Avenus and Varharsh arrived at the the mouth of the Green River that flows through Telinor Forest to find the docks of the port to be largely empty of ships and lacking the other two members of their party they settled in the nearby inn, The Thirsty Dragon where they partook in a game of the Dragon and the Thief with the innkeeper. The Valued Partner When the final members of their party arrived the group discussed which of the remaining vessels they should attempt to gain passage on, arriving upon the Quel'Doran merchant vessel The Valued Partner as the most likely to let them on. The captain of the ship, Cirdus Melus let them join his crew due to what he claimed was run of sailors jumping ship once they saw the size of the Blackstaff fleet when really the vessel was a commandeered fruit merchant cargo ship with its actual crew having been paid off by Cirdus to leave the region. Cirdus, along with his first officer Furus Maldin, were yavari ''or spies within the Quel'Doran Legions that had orders to further investigate the nature of this invasion having previously gained information about Eol'din in his Shiro a number of years ago. Infiltrating the Command Ship As the fleet moved the four men settled into their roles aboard the ship, with Avenus having to continually summon the abomination bound to him, eventually calling it Mark on a whim as it had remained nameless until his journey with the fleet. One night whilst on duty at the helm of the ship Avenus saw Furus have the spell ''fly ''cast upon him by the ship's mage, using it to travel onto the nearby Blackstaff Command Ship to gather intelligence on the fleet. For Avenus' own reasons he elected not to report the suspicious behaviour to the rest of the party and so when the ship was due to deliver its cargo of fruit to the very same Blackstaff ship the group took no notice of Furus' disappearance until Cirdus himself informed them of his true intentions, asking them to infiltrate the Blackstaff ship and free his crew that he told them he had sent over in crates of fruit. The group was suspicious of the plan though they agreed as they had made no progress to completing their goal and this was an opportunity to kill Varun who was on that Command Ship. Crawling through the root network of the rear of the Command Ship, the party arrived in the kitchens of the vessel, directly underneath the dining room. Hearing the sound of people approaching the group hid throughout the kitchen and its adjoining supply rooms, then simultaneous attacking the three Blackstaff apprentices that had been preparing food, violently murdering the three young men in cold blood and leaving them eviscerated in the kitchen. Moving up to the dining room the group was confused as to find the room empty except for a set table and the sound of people loudly eating and talking. Talking at the top of the stairs, expressing their confusing the party was assaulted by strikes of magic from an unseen assailant as they talked, soon realising that there was an illusion placed upon the room that made it appear like a dining room when in actuality it was a ritual room filled with runes and scripts intended to bind infernal outsiders to the Material Plane. There they found Varun and his bound Contract Devil, along with a heretical priest of Aureon who all fought against the party. The group was able to bypass many of the safeguards around the room which were intended for creatures akin to devils, and so slew the monster whilst its master fled through a short range teleportation spell, leaving the heretic alive in a show of mercy. The group pursued Varun to the deck above them, finding it cast in an unnatural darkness, striking out towards the only light they saw until Sulenark dispelled the cloud of shadow that obscured their vision. At that moment Furus, who had been rescued by the other crewmen of ''The Valued Partner, plunged his dagger up through the jaw of Varun letting his body go slack, turning the lesser devils that had been summoned feral, going wild about the ship. Varharsh took the contract that was bound to the devil who had returned to his plane of Baator to recover from the corpse of Varun and the group and the crew began to jump out to The Valued Partner that had been summoned through use of the flare spell, but not before decapitating the corpse of Varun as proof to no one in particular. The Landing Grostere Arriving in the city of Grostere, the fleet broke up with many stopping off in the city to prepare to return and other ships joining it such as those from New Gate Free Company, led by their flagship The Lady's Wrath captained by Kym Farstride who took the group aboard to ferry them on for the rest of their journey. The group decided that it would be better to attack their next target Skymore before the fleet arrives in Maktur, choosing to wait until the fleet passes beyond Vhir where it would be in the open sea. The Hunted Skymore had begun to search the fleet for for those matching the description of the four that the heretic had seen, starting with the pirates and other hangers on that had been following the fleet as it travelled, often tearing the vessels apart in an attempt to rout out the assassins. Fearing that he would eventually find them, the group used their contacts to arrange to get passage onto some pirate vessels and await Skymore's attacking of those vessels. After disguising themselves in cunning pirate garb, the four set off in row boats to the vessel Waveblade along with the dragonborn Jamal who was to be their escape route should they require it. As they were negotiating with the first mate of the vessel to gain membership of the crew, the nearby vessel Sahuagin ''was seen to partially explode and begin to drift towards the ''Waveblade. Acting quickly, the group attempted to rally the crew to storm the vessel though the captain was too busy fleeing to aid them and only a few brave pirates joined them. Skymore was indeed on the deck of the Sahuagin and he and his Blackstaff Mages and the same heretic who recognised the four despite their puffy and devilish pirate attire, opened fire with magic and musket balls. The group overwhelmed the paladin however and struck him with a bolt of lightning that sent him flying over board as a third vessel The Red Sceptre crashed into the Waveblade drifting into the Sahuagin seemingly with no crew aboard. Lortz dove into the water after him to retrieve his sword believing it to have been the Kinslayer blade only to find that he had been using a greatsword the whole time. The four abandoned the sinking Sahuagin and headed for The Red Sceptre to investigate, signalling for Jamal to arrive with their rowboats. Once there they encountered the elf Wethrin who had been seeking to turn Skymore away from this path and return to their god Solonar though the sudden arrival of the four agents ended that hope. Wethrin had poisoned the crew of The Red Sceptre, ''hoping that Skymore would investigate the ship and give them an opportunity to talk. The group left Wethrin after he promised to aid them how he could against Eol'din's forces. The Beachhead After returning to the ''Lady's Wrath, the group waited out the remaining months, with only the stopping to deal with some Sirithi merchants from G'yass to purchase last minute provisions before travelling into the open sea. Once they approached the frozen continent, the twelve Command Ships, and the fleet's flagship The Blackstaff, that a had formed a ring around the rest of the fleet broke off to travel ahead, using their large icebreaker rams to cut through the ice. As they went deeper into Maktur they began to skid on top of the ice, skimming along the surface until they were halted by the roots that extended out the rear of each ship. The roots then extended into the ice causing the ships to move from a horizontal position to a vertical one as a defensive bulwark on on the continent. Here the first wave of the fleet were engaged by a combined force of Ice Giants and humanoid barbarians, the Blackstaves remaining in their makeshift towers to counter any large scale magical assaults launched at their ground forces. The group was part of this first wave and was faced with three Ice Giants and twice as many barbarians which they managed to defeat. The March A week after first landing, scouts had been sent to map the colossal wall that blocked the army's advancement into the continent. While drinking heavily with some of the commanders of these scouting missions, Varharsh uncovered that their was a passage along the wall that allowed one passage through and that the cultist of Tiamat, Gulsauco, had already departed through it without waiting for the army to mobilise. Varharsh returned to his companions with this information and they set off for the wall, with Varharsh himself remaining behind to sober up. The group found the secret passage and began to travel down its narrow length, finding evidence of wild beasts having taken refuge, Sulenark noting that the markings on the floor most likely belonged to yetis tracking the cultists. The First Passage Arriving at a three way split in the passage, the group discussed amongst themselves which route Gulsauco would have travelled, deciding that she would have gone the route leading upward to get a view atop the wall. Lortz ascended the stairs, making sure to be as quiet as possible, his companions slowly following him. As he reached the top he stumbled directly into the back of a yeti that had cornered two cultists on the roof of the small cavern that the stairs opened into. The yeti alerted the cultist to the presence of intruders, and they having received orders from Gulsauco to kill anyone that appeared to them to be assassins, which the three men seemed to have fitted, they began launching spells at the men. They cast a power Flame Snake spell which took on the guise of a dragon that blew a great jet of flame ahead of it, incinerating the yeti and melting much of the ice, the flaming dragon then launched itself down the stairway after the men as they tumbled down its length, slipping and sliding to avoid the heat. At the bottom of the steps they collided with Varharsh who had sobered up and had followed them ahead of the main army which was beginning to depart. Again they discussed which route to follow, believing that the two cultists that had just attacked them were no threat. They opted for the route leading downwards, deeper into the wall of ice. The Second Passage As they descended they passed large holes in the wall of the passage that looked to have been tunnelled by some creature, not knowing what could have made such gouges, they carried on. At the end of the stairway of ice, the passage opened up into an ice cavern with a river of melt water having dug a twenty foot deep crevasse through the middle of it, a bridge of ice extended across the gap appearing to have been magically created. On the other side they saw two more dragon cultists slumped against the wall apparently dead clutching some magical artefacts as if warding themselves against an attack, frozen in the moment of death. Taking a step onto the bridge the group felt the whole cavern echo with the sound of the ice cracking in protest of the weight put upon it. It was soon followed by the sound of a Remorhaz that burst out from the passage they just travelled through. Avenus drew his blade and moved to a better position, only for the beast to snap him up and proceed to swallow him whole. Avenus burned alive in the stomach of the beast and was killed, leaving the other three to surround it. After an intense fight where the party was terrified they too would be eaten, Sulenark through Varharsh magically through the air, the Remorhaz lashing out only for a piece of yeti dung that Varharsh had stepped in to fly off in shoe and into the beasts mouth causing it to gag. Varharsh slew the beast, slashing it apart, spilling the contents of its stomach out into the stream that flowed through the cavern. The Third Passage After recovering from the fight the remaining three members of the group gathered up Avenus' bones and set off for the final passage. Leading them further through the wall, the group began to mourn their friend, taking the time the walk provided to recall their experiences together. Eventually, they arrived at a huge cavern filled with he wreckage of hundreds of boats in what seemed to be a frozen lake that filled the whole chamber. Across the surface of the ice they saw a white dragon and four mage cultists fending off a group of yetis that were assaulting their position on the prow of a sunken ship, the rest of it submerged beneath the ice. Sulenark struck out against the dragon with a bolt of lightning, though it failed to damage the beast, it succeeded in attracting its attention. The dragon took flight and prepared a breath attack against its foes, swirling above the combat as the yetis, cultists and companions fought. After a long drawn out fight, the leader of the yetis managed to bring the dragon to the ground where he and the remaining companions could finish it off. Gulsauco returned to her half-elf form after she was stabbed through the heart, the sound of an army marching across the ice cutting the celebrations short for the yeti and the companions who rushed ahead to an opening across the lake leading to the other side of the wall. Once outside they were approached by a Telinor mage that hid them in the snow outside the cavern's mouth, allowing them to see the army as it marched out. The mage, Tuan, told them to find aid amongst those in the rear of the army, mainly comprised of New Gate Free Company, advice they followed, with priests of Aureon tending to their wounds and magical curses that the cultists had afflicted them with. The group was then present as Eol'din cracked open the ice barrier that surrounded the volcano where the Primordial Azo was imprisoned. There they gathered in the fiery chambers, the army prepared to fight whatever defences the ancient prison held. Eol'din walked along across the broken bridge where Seibold, Hidal, Wethrin and the leaders of the Ice Giants and the barbarian tribes. With his plan to draw out Azo from his prison in order to deliver what he hoped would be a death blow to the ancient of fire requiring the three individuals that the group had killed, Eol'din elected to sacrifice himself, drawing out the shard of pure evil that lay within the blade Kinslayer, wrapping his own soul around it. He cast himself and the fragment into the fire, wounding but not killing Azo, causing the beast to lash out at all inside the prison, though Seibold along with various other mages including Hidal were able to keep the bonds secure that held him there. The remaining soldiers and mercenaries in the prison were transported out via prepared teleporation spells intended to send the army back to the edge of Maktur before it got a chance to assault the prison. The group was sent to the thirteen towers on the edge of the continent where they saw a great eruption in the distance, a great smoke plume rising upward only to rapidly freeze and fall to the ice causing the continent to shake. The remaining boats took their passengers back south, with some Blackstaves remaining behind in the tower Command Ships. Repercussions The results of this invasion was the downfall of Eol'din, with his plan to wound the Primordial Azo requiring his sacrifice in order to get his revenge against the creature that was responsible for the destruction of the Orjeri Union. He was however successful in wounding the imprisoned Primordial, reversing his effects on the world as exerted during ''Pelor's Glory, ''specifically the Black Cloud that lay over the Ojeri Peninsula which began to disperse. The Necromancer Nabob Ba'win was able to enact changes to the college's admissions policy, allowing for non-elven races to apply. The Blackstaves returned to Telinor in disgrace, with many disassociating themselves from the group. The Bridge slowly began to dissolve as the goal of the organisation had been achieve, albeit unexpectedly.Category:Campaigns Category:Maktur Category:Telinor Category:Fall of Eol'din